William J. Ellenberger, 32°, K.C.C.H.
15234 Sky High Road, Escondido, California 92025–2401

Brother Benjamin H. Latrobe fully deserves the title of "Father of Architecture in America."

By the end of the 18th Century, our young republic was flexing its muscles for the physical expansion that would carry it to the pantheon of great nations. It needed the infrastructure to support a growing population: housing, public buildings, mills, factories, roads, and canals. There were a few self-taught architects, builders, surveyors, and millwrights, but no formally trained professionals.

Latrobe, educated in England and Germany, studied architecture under Sir William Chambers and civil engineering under John Smeaton, then the outstanding civil engineer in England. After working in a subordinate capacity, Brother Latrobe opened his own architectural office in 1791 in England, but, as none were for major projects, he was dissatisfied with the commissions he received. Early in 1796, Brother Benjamin Henry Latrobe arrived in Virginia from England to seek his fortune in America. Had Parliament approved the proposed Chelmsford Canal project in England, Latrobe would have been its chief engineer, and other commissions would have followed. But Parliament did not, so this turn of fate gave us the "Father of Architecture in America."

When he arrived in Virginia, Bro. Latrobe was excited by the new country dedicated to freedom. Through letters of introduction, he obtained work, including the design for his first American building, a fine residence for Captain Pennock. Then he turned his engineering talents to a survey of the Dismal Swamp canal project, but became disappointed with the prospects for work in Virginia. Consequently, he moved to Philadelphia, then the largest and most important city in the United States. Of his work there, two projects should be noted: the Bank of Pennsylvania, for its architecture, and the Philadelphia Water Works, for its engineering.

Upon completion in 1800, the bank was the most significant architectural landmark in the United States. According to Talbot Hamlin, a biographer of Latrobe, "It was the country's first Greek Revival structure and also the first building in which masonry vaults were used integrally as a major means of achieving architectural effect. And incontestably it was a beautiful structure, the destruction of which by the government in the 1860s is one of the great tragedies of Philadelphia's long history of apathy toward its important monuments."¹

As Philadelphia grew, its need for a public water supply became urgent, the more so after the 1793 yellow fever epidemic. Here was an opportunity for Latrobe to exercise his engineering talent. In July 1798, the city council engaged him as engineer of "superior talent and industry" to investigate the whole subject. In December, his report was accepted, and work was commenced in March of 1799 under his personal direction.

Had he known the pitfalls he faced, he might have had second thoughts. The engineering and construction management problems would have tried an experienced engineer. He lacked background in dealing with contractors, and a major problem was interference by politicians. Also, unsuccessful bidders vilified him. Technically, the project consisted of a settling basin on the Schuykill River, a canal and tunnel through rock to a steam-driven pumping station where the water was lifted to an underground brick conduit and delivered by gravity to the Centre Square Water Works, which was actually a building in the appearance of a Grecian Temple housing a pumping engine and an elevated storage tank.

"At that time there were only three steam engines of any considerable size in the country."² Latrobe awarded a $30,000 contract to Nicholas Roosevelt (his friend and future son-in-law) to make and erect two steam-driven pumps, capable of delivering three million gallons per day to a height of 50 feet, and to maintain the pumps for five years. Latrobe had at least six contractors to supervise, including several unscrupulous ones forced on him by political pressure. One padded the payrolls. Then, Nicholas Roosevelt failed to deliver the engines on time.

Alas, Latrobe's cost estimate, $150,000, made in haste before the design was finished, escalated to $500,000; the time for completion of the work, 6 months, ran on to 18 months; the system delivered only 7,500 gallon per day; and the cost of operating the system was exorbitant. Together, that made four black marks against Latrobe. He had invested his own money in the project hoping to make additional profit. Alas, there was none. Still, Bro. Latrobe was a pioneer in urban planning and public hygiene whose work won respect by subsequent generations of civil engineers.

Following his work in Philadelphia, from 1802 to his death in 1820, there were only four years during which Latrobe did not work for our national government. His assignments included civil and military construction, but his greatest work, on which his reputation rests, is the U.S. Capitol. In 1803 President Jefferson made Latrobe Surveyor of Public Buildings of the U.S., but most of his work was on the Capitol.

Shortages of material and labor, especially skilled artisans, delayed the work, and there was friction with Dr. William Thornton, whose design for the Capitol had been accepted. Thornton was not a trained architect and stubbornly resisted necessary changes in the design to make the building functional. Despite these frictions, the building continued to grow from 1808 to 1812. By 1811 the working parts of the Capitol were virtually complete. Then, in September 1814 when the British burned the public buildings, all Latrobe had done went up in smoke!

In the period 1807 to 1815, while working on the Capitol, the President's House, and the Navy Yard, Latrobe carried on a private practice with projects in Washington, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. The Roman Catholic Cathedral in Baltimore was a long-term project (1805–1821), the first such cathedral in the U.S. and one of Latrobe's great accomplishments. From 1815 to 1817, he was engaged in rebuilding the Capitol. "The British had done a thorough job of demolition."³ The Capitol rose like a Phoenix from the ashes on its original site. With no assistant, Latrobe produced new drawings in an amazingly short time and secured President Madison's approval.

During the winter of 1815–1816, President Madison and the Congress eliminated the three-commissioners system of supervision of the work, and, ultimately, Colonel Samuel Lane of the Army was selected to guide construction. The Senate demanded a larger chamber requiring new design, demolition of old brickwork, and new construction on the ground floor to support the new work. By the end of November 1816, the Senate Chamber walls were up 10 feet above the floor, indicating remarkable progress. Also, "the new Supreme Court vault was a triumph both structurally and aesthetically.⁴

In May 1816, Congress called for an estimated cost to complete the wings and the time for accomplishment. Latrobe explained to Colonel Lane that an estimate made without detailed study is only a guess based on experience. To Colonel Lane this was disrespect, and he fired Latrobe's clerk in retribution.

When James Monroe was elected President, the Senate and the House could not agree on which chamber should be the site of the inaugural ceremony. They compromised on a public inauguration in front of the future Capitol steps. Latrobe had to design the decorated platform for the first of many inaugurations held there.

Latrobe could not approach President Monroe, a coldly efficient executive with a sense of presidential dignity. Rapid completion of the Capitol was Monroe's first order of business, so Latrobe worked under great pressure to expedite the work, but Colonel Lane continued to make life miserable for him. Lane's enmity for the architect became intolerable. On November 20,1817, Latrobe submitted his resignation; however, he continued to work completing the drawings for the entire building, and they were in Monroe's hands before the new year.

The drawings exist; therefore, it is possible to evaluate what Latrobe the architect accomplished in 29 months following his arrival in Washington in the spring of 1815. "Aesthetically the entire structure is essentially Latrobe's. . . . In this great building, then, Latrobe set the basic tone and established a standard for government building which was to persist for generations."⁵

Early in 1818, following bankruptcy, the Latrobe family moved to Baltimore where faithful supporters befriended him as he undertook various projects in an effort to recoup his fortune. But a visit to New Orleans in 1819 convinced him that his fortune lay in that city where he and his family relocated in 1820.

One reason for the move was to expedite the completion of the waterworks he had started years ago but which were suspended during the War of 1812. His effort was cut short when he died of yellow fever on September 3, 1820. "Yet the tragic irony of Latrobe's death should not obscure the triumphant richness of his life—rich in friends, in family, in the joy of creative work."⁶

Regarding Brother Latrobe's Masonic membership, he was initiated in the Lodge of Antiquity No. 2, London, 1788, and served as Junior Warden 1789–90. When he came to the United States, he affiliated with Lodge No. 54, Richmond, Virginia.

This article mentions only half a dozen of the hundreds of architectural and engineering projects Bro. Latrobe was engaged in during his 24 years in the U.S. He brought the profession of architecture to us, and his office was our first school for professional architects. Despite his superior professional talents, however, he was a poor businessman, and he invested in many enterprises that failed. Despite his misfortunes, we are the beneficiaries of his architectural genius, and his engineering skills contributed to our industrial development and expanding economy as a great nation.

William J. Ellenberger is a member of the Valley of Washington, D.C., and Marion Commandery No. 36, Marion, Ohio. He is a retired engineer consultant with a lifetime interest in the history of engineering and technology.